A Convoy of tourist boats.

I guess the mountainous landscape from around Guilin, are a world famous thing, and something many people, when they see it, connects with China.
It is so odd formations of the hills and mountains that they are easy to remember when seen and they are used as locations in numerous films and even on the 20 Yuan note the motive has found it’s way, and these mountains is why the region has become what it is now; a major tourist destination in China.
Guilin is the main City in the area and the airport is placed here. It is a small airport, but with connections to both Hong Kong and Macau, as well as other major Chinese cities. Tourism here is the main industry, and both Chinese and foreigners comes here in huge numbers.
We were advised to let out Guilin, but take a ferry down the Li River to a minor town called Yangshou.
The boat ride is 53 kilometres and takes 4 hours. Hotels and travel agencies in Guilin can organise this trip.,, but be aware that you are going to be on the ferryboat with many, many other people and with many, many other boats.A bus picked us up at the Guilin Hotel early in the morning and took us to the pier outside Guilin. This pier was like a huge departure hall with numbers of souvenir stalls, and here the hassling in fact started. As we were waiting for the sign to go to our boat, we observed how load and load of busses entered and out came a flow of people, all running after some coloured flag and onto one of the many waiting river ferries, and then when full, they took of down the Li River, one after another.
Finally we could board our boat and we were on the way in this convoy of river ferries, with 3 or more boats behind us, and maybe 15 to 20 ahead.
Included in the ticket was a meal, and for a 4-hour trip it was also needed.
The trip is fantastic and the scenery worth every single Yuan, so it can be endured to share the boat deck with the about 100 other guests, who doesn’t stand there all the time.